


How to Survive a Crash Landing in Two Acts

by reachedthebitterend



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, Slightly Hopeful Ending, mentions of maria/michael
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 06:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20204983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reachedthebitterend/pseuds/reachedthebitterend
Summary: Maria breaks up with Michael because she deserves more. Alex tries to cut off all ties that lead him to Michael.





	How to Survive a Crash Landing in Two Acts

**Author's Note:**

> written 05/10/19

**Act I. Make sure your plan of evacuation has no obstacles that will make it difficult to escape**

Sometimes it’s difficult for Michael to remember that Alex and Maria grew up together.

Not that he forgets that they’ve lived in the same small town most of their lives, but that he forgets that their parents grew up together and by extension they were brought up together.

Michael walks into the bar late one night to find Maria sitting down on one of the booths, playing with the label of the beer bottle in her hands, a half empty bottle sitting in a ring of condensation in front of the seat across from her as though she had company.

He approaches her slowly when he gets no reaction to his greeting.

He drops his black hat right in the middle of the table and she doesn’t even flinch.

Michael slides into the booth across from her and grabs the beer.

It’s lukewarm meaning it’s been sitting there for a while, and well, Michael has a feeling he’s going to want to be drunk by the time the night is over.

He tips the bottle to his mouth and drinks the rest of the beer in two swallows, setting the bottle down and wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand, before he leaned on his elbows to look at her.

She was watching him with wide startled eyes as though he’d done some magic trick in front of her.

And then, Michael saw the way the mask fell over her face. So similar to how Alex would prepare himself for a fight that he doesn’t know who learned it from who and how he didn’t notice that Liz also does the same thing.

“I don’t think this is going to work out, Guerin.”

Michael freezes and stares at her, forcibly reminded that she and Alex spent their formative years together.

She swallows hard and looks away.

“Did you know that Alex was the one who taught me how to tie my shoes?”

She was staring at the wall with a soft, sad expression and Michael turned to see a picture of her and Liz and Alex, all laughing, arms wrapped around each other.

“Not that my mom wasn’t trying,” she continues looking down at the beer bottle and fidgeting with the label. “But, that day I wanted to wear a pair of hot pink sneakers that belonged to Rosa, and I couldn’t tie them properly and they kept coming undone and I tripped and Alex stopped me from skinning my knees and then sat down with me on the side walk right in front of the Crashdown and took me through the steps just like one of his brother’s taught him and in three tries I learned.”

She finally looks up at him and smiles, and Michael doesn’t know what kind of face he’s making but it makes the smile on her face falter.

“Where do you see us in five years?” she asks making Michael’s brow furrow in confusion. “Hell, where do you see us in six months? Are we going to save money and get an apartment together or do you plan to move in here with me?”

Michael blinks at her not expecting that line of questioning at all, especially when they haven’t even really talked about their relationship.

“Do you want kids?” she keeps going when he doesn’t say anything and once again Michael finds himself faltering. “Because I do,” she says, reaching up to her neck and pressing the pendant of her necklace against her chest. “Not right now, but someday I want a family.”

Michael inhales deeply and pushes the beer bottle to the side.

“I don’t know,” Michael says finally after several minutes of silence. “There’s just so much going on right now, I don’t have time to think about what I’m doing tomorrow let alone what I’ll be doing in six months.”

“And I get that,” she says smiling sadly. “But I am not going to give up twenty eight years of friendship just to be your port in the storm.”

Michael swallows hard. “That’s not what-”

“Alex was here tonight,” she says interrupting him.

“I gathered,” Michael says and sighs leaning back in his seat.

“I told him that I wanted to talk and he said that I was ten weeks too late for this conversation, but he sat down right where you’re sitting and he grabbed the beer I placed in front of him and took two long swallows before putting his beer down and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and leaning his elbows on the table and looking at me, giving me the signal to talk, and you don’t know how much of a mind fuck it was to see you do the exact same thing just now.”

Michael just blinks at her, not knowing what to say.

She leans forward setting the beer bottle aside and looking at him seriously. “I told him that I understand that he’s avoiding me because he’s mad, and he was quick to assure me that he wasn’t mad at me. That he just needs the space to grieve our previous friendship because he’s not going to cut me out of his life because we’re like family, but he needs the space to get used to the fact that our relationship wasn’t what he thought it was, and at first I was so mad at him for saying that, mad that he would think that I didn’t think that our friendship was important.”

She shakes her head and laughs sadly looking away, back to the picture, “But then I realized that I would be doing the same thing if you’d decided to try again with him. I would be avoiding you both and trying to cut all the ties I had to you, but I wouldn’t be able to cut Alex out of my life. There’s too much history between us.”

She inhales shakily and looks back to Michael. “So if you’re not planning for a future with me, if you don’t see us living together and raising a family and growing old, then it’s not worth it.”

Michael looks away from her then and Maria inhales deeply again.

“Before he left he told me that he gets it, that your kisses make the world stop spinning so he understand why I wouldn’t care about anything else but kissing you back.”

Michael shuts his eyes tight refusing to look at her or react to her words.

“But that’s the thing. Kissing you is nice. More than nice,” she pauses and Michael looks at her then and feels a pain in his chest at the sad look on her face and the tears shining in her eyes. “But it doesn’t make my world stop spinning, and don’t you think I deserve someone who makes me feel like it does?”

**Act II. Don’t look back**

It’s just days after his conversation with Maria that Alex comes to him.

He looks terrible, hair a wild mess on top of his head, black bags under his eyes like he’s been hardly sleeping, with bloodshot eyes and a tired tilt to his mouth and a small part of Michael thrills at the fact that he looks just as miserable as Michael is.

“What are you doing here?” Michael asks already feeling tired.

Alex just sits down across from him and Michael takes a pull from his beer when he inhales deeply and gathers himself to speak.

“I’ve spent the past couple of weeks chasing every lead and tracking every transaction and running down every line and this is everything that they had on your people.”

He holds out his hand and he has a small black USB nestled in his palm, a green alien head as the cover. It was attached to a small key.

“I put everything else I could find in the bunker, Kyle will take you when you want to go-”

Michael swallows hard and concentrates crooking his fingers and making the USB fly to him.

“You gonna be too busy to take me yourself?” Michael asks and tries to hide the smirk when Alex’s mouth tightens like he’s trying to stop himself from rising to the bait.

“I’m trying to make things easier for you,” Alex says sounding diplomatic and unattached from the situation. “You said we’re tied together by this alien legacy bullshit and that you don’t want anything to do with me that isn’t about that, so here you go, everything that ties me to the alien legacy bullshit, right in your hand.”

Michael’s left fingers tighten around the USB, and he can hear Maria’s voice echoing in his head, _trying to cut all the ties I had to you_.

“Yeah,” Michael says leaning forward and giving Alex a smirk. “You’re just doing this for me. It has nothing to do with you.”

Alex looks to the side shaking his head. “What exactly do _you _want from me, Guerin? Do you want me to cry? Do you want me to beg? Do you want me to demand an explanation? Do you want me to tell you that I can’t stand the sight of you, as well? Will that get it through your head how much this is hurting me?”

Michael leans back in his chair and Alex stands up, looking at Michael with anger and pain in his eyes.

“It was never my intention to hurt-” Michael starts and Alex cuts him off with a harsh laugh.

“Oh come on,” Alex says. “Sing me a different tune, because I’m tired of this duet.”

Michael feels a stirring of anger and gets up. “This isn’t an excuse. It’s the truth.”

Alex just shakes his head. “Maria is my best friend.”

Michael rolls his eyes, “Now I’m the one tired of this duet. So she’s your best friend, so what? All of your friends are off limits?”

“That is not the point and you know it, Guerin. No matter what happens now, from the moment you kissed her again, we were through. And not because she’s off limits or that I can’t handle the thought of you being with someone else, but because she would’ve never hurt me like this if she didn’t have strong feelings for you, and you better have strong feelings for her too, Guerin because if you’re just using her then you’re not who I thought you were, and that also means that we can never get back together.”

Michael feels the anger whoosh out of him leaving him feeling cold.

“So yes,” Alex says sighing and sounding as tired as he looks. “I’m going to be too busy to take you to the bunker.”

Michael swallows hard and nods his head once.

Alex inhales too and gives Michael a sad smile, “I just want you to be happy, okay? Just be happy and remember that you are loved, okay? Always. Family isn’t a word I ever use lightly, but you’re going to need to give me some space too.”

Michael feels a warmth like a flickering candle flame inside of his chest, but it’s not enough to overwhelm the icy cold feeling spreading through him.

Alex just nods his head again and turns to go.

Michael looks down at the USB in his hand and turns to walk into the Airstream.

If Alex is going to walk away for the last time, then Michael doesn’t want to see it.

He closes the door behind him and takes a deep breath before he turns and peeks out through the crack between the edge of the glass and the newspaper he’s got covering the windows.

He can just make Alex out, sitting in the front seat of his car, with his head resting on his steering wheel.

He looks up, and Michael knows that there is no way that Alex can make him out in the darkness but it still feels like he’s looking right at him.

Michael freezes looking at Alex’s eyes and seeing the complicated swirl of emotion that crosses across his face and he inhales sharply as he recognizes love and _longing_.

Alex bites his lips and shakes his head, before the mask of indifference falls over his face and he starts the car and drives away.

Michael watches him go feeling the warmth of the flickering candle flame grow a little bit stronger in the pit of his stomach.


End file.
